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<title>Blooming Momoirobara by Hayato (TheLennyBunny)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842145">Blooming Momoirobara</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLennyBunny/pseuds/Hayato'>Hayato (TheLennyBunny)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ALL COLLECTION REQUESTS DENIED, Complete, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, LGBTQ Themes, Pre-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 22:01:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>930</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842145</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLennyBunny/pseuds/Hayato</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a very no-good, stressful, bad day, and Ino just needs to ask her father something.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Yamanaka Ino &amp; Yamanaka Inoichi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>73</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blooming Momoirobara</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Some of the civilian girls, girls she will inevitably grow distant to or cut ties with, sometimes make fun of Ino. It’s done in the way that they can brush off if she show upset, the passing comment or passive-aggressive joke. She recognises it for the insulting it is and of course, takes offense. Who wouldn’t?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It does make her think, because little girls and boys are insecure little things, and jabs and them and theirs can cut deep. While she helps Tou-chan water the flowers or Kaa-chan make dinner, it circulates in her mind, and after a particularly bad day that had begun with issues keeping up in class and ended with her nearly punching a girl that’d told Sakura-chan she was becoming a kunoichi because she was too ugly to marry, she cries into the tiny succulents and asks if they’re bad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her father considers her words with a thoughtful look before he puts down his shears, turning to her fully in his seat. He doesn’t say anything as he hugs her and rubs a hand on her back, waiting for the tears and snot to end. He does this a lot, waiting for the tears or tantrum or excitement to end before he talks. Kaa-chan says it’s because he’s waiting for her to finish. She also says that it’s because he can’t separate home and work, but Ino doesn’t understand what she means and doesn’t really care to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why would we be bad, Ino?” He asks when Ino is quiet, rubbing her nose raw to try and dry it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because we’re weird,” She mutters in reply, “You take care of the flowers and clean the house but you’re a boy, an’ Kaa-chan is pretty and cooks but she’s got muscles like you an’ Gai-san and wrestles with him and doesn’t care if her clothes tear, an’ I’m not thin and I don’t like boys and we’re not, not-” And she doesn’t know what they’re supposed to be like, but everytime the other girls talk they act like everything she mentions is wrong somehow, off, it’s pitiful or weird or </span>
  <em>
    <span>bad</span>
  </em>
  <span> and she doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>get it</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tou-chan hums, the way he does when he makes a move in shogi that makes Shikaku-ojii swear. “These girls are those civilian girls in your nursery school?” He asks, and she nods her head. “Well. Shinobi and civilians are very different, Ino. They have different standards- rules of what is considered good, okay, and bad- when it comes to how men and women can be, which seems to be your… friends’ issue.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Ino frowns at that because it doesn’t help her at </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> does it, because they still </span>
  <em>
    <span>made the insults </span>
  </em>
  <span>in the first place. “But why did they say all that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Civilians are weird,” Her fathers says in his teaching voice, and she smacks his chin and makes him laugh. “Because you stand out Ino-chan, and civilians don’t like people standing out. They like it when people follow their rules, walking, talking, dressing, and acting like they’ve been taught. Shinobi don’t follow these rules, and so a lot don’t like us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is nothing wrong with me, who looks like a man to them, liking to clean or garden, the same as there is nothing wrong with your mother, who looks like a woman to them, liking to spar or drink or be reckless. And there is </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” He emphasizes, scrunching up a bit to look her straight in the eyes, “Wrong with </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>if you don’t like boys, or girls, or anyone in particular. As long as you are happy, anyone who finds issue can sit on a kunai.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ino considers this as seriously as a six year-old who only figured out how to write her name a year ago can.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What makes you a boy or a girl then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her father blinks, and taps his temple with a smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The only thing that decides that is a person’s mind, nothing else. Not their clothes, family, or their body.” His smile grows to a grin, secretive and smug. “They tried to tell Kaa-chan and I otherwise when we were a little older than you, and I made sure they knew just how wrong they were.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And exactly like her father had intended, Ino’s eyes get big and round and she pounces him asking what he did, did he use jutsu on people did he </span>
  <em>
    <span>enter anyone’s MIND,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and he tells her about scaring the god out of some clothes merchant with “good old intimidation techniques” and how it won him his first date with Kaa-chan, how Shikaku-ojii and Chouza-ojii helped him deal with a group of boys that had taken to bullying during academy, how he did what he wanted and damn anyone who said otherwise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And later, when they’ve finally gone back to tending to the flowers, he’ll gently point out the small pieces ot them and mention how this flower has girl parts, this boy, and these both and yet they’re all pretty, aren’t they? There are some that are pretty, some that have ways to defend themselves, and others, the ones on shelves she can’t reach, that are very dangerous, and yet none of that decides whether or not they’re male or female or perfect.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ino waters and prunes with him and really feels quite settled, and if the next day she actually does punch one of the girls in the mouth for saying it’s like her parents are the wrong way round, well, at least she gets dango afterward and gets to see Sakura-chan giggle.</span>
</p>
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